


Day 4 - Free Choice

by derivedfromstrong



Series: Pepperony Week 2018 [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Pepperony Week, Pepperony week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-22 09:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15578817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/derivedfromstrong/pseuds/derivedfromstrong
Summary: Why is wedding planning so difficult? Pepper and Tony discuss their impending nuptials... that is, if they can ever agree on anything.





	Day 4 - Free Choice

“Maybe we should just elope.”

Pepper looked up from from her newspaper to see Tony standing in front of her. It wasn’t the first time he had suggested that and too early to get into this argument. Not that it was an  _argument_  argument, but more of a difference of opinions. Sure, their engagement was lasting longer than many people anticipated, but Pepper was enjoying every second of it. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have now, but since he brought it up… “And why should we do that?” she asked.

“I’ve been thinking about it and there are definitely more pros than cons,” Tony said, placing his tablet in front of her. “We wouldn’t have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on food, or flowers, or hiring a DJ. We could use that money toward an extended honeymoon, wouldn’t that be fun?”

Pursing her lips, Pepper wasn’t disappointed with his suggestions. She was interested in hearing his argument. “And the cons?”

“Well… you wouldn’t get the wedding of your dreams,” Tony shrugged. “Heck, you wouldn’t even get to wear the most beautiful wedding dress of this century. I wouldn’t want to take that away from you… but I want to marry you so badly, eloping sounds more convincing every single day. All we need to do is grab a couple witnesses, head to the courthouse and sign the papers. Then we can take the most lavish honeymoon ever.”

“Right…” Pepper said, going back to what she was reading in the news. “Has Happy put you up to this? Because he was complaining the other day that he’s  _swamped_  dealing with the news and keeping everyone out of our business.”

Tony snickered, because it sounded exactly like something Happy would do. “He’s just looking out for us, Pep. But maybe he’s onto something.”

Putting the paper down again, Pepper smiled over at her fiancée. “Well… I’d prefer not to elope, because I just finalized my dress with someone,” she told him. "Of course I want to marry you as soon as possible, but sometimes the greatest things take time to plan and I want to have this wedding with you.”

He knew he was going to lose this one, but Tony perked up when Pepper said she had finalized her dress and really wanted to have a traditional wedding. “Oh, and this dress of yours… is it nice?”

“Oh yes, it’s very nice,” Pepper grinned. “You can’t see it yet, but you’ll love it.” Seeing the dumbfounded look on Tony’s face, she chuckled. “If you want to see it, we have to decide on a date. That way, we’ll have it set and then we can finally start counting down the days.”

“That would be nice,” Tony thought about it. “If you’ve decided on where you want the wedding, then we can potentially pick the date based off what the weather is going to be like. If you want to get married upstate, then we can probably choose the end of summer, but if you want to get married in Malibu, we can probably choose late fall, early winter.”

Pepper shrugged. That was the problem so far. She had no issues picking the designer of her dress, or choosing the chef to cater their wedding, or the team to put together the wedding… it was just where she wanted to have it that was the problem.

“I mean, you plan on inviting the team, right? It’d make sense to have it upstate. Not many people would have to travel far and the place is big enough,” she took a sip of her coffee and looked at him.

“Yeah, but that’s the compound. I don’t want you to have it there just because it’s convenient,” Tony argued… but looked at her for a moment. “I have an idea. FRIDAY, pull up the list of Stark properties.”

 _Of course, are you interested in business or personal properties?_  The AI asked, pulling up a file of hundreds of different properties that were either owned by Stark Industries or by Tony himself.

“Personal ones. I’m looking for something specific,” Tony said, scrolling through the shorter list once it was filtered. “Here it is,” he grinned, pulling up the property on Long Island. “Casa de Stark. Well, that wasn’t its exact name, but it’s close enough. I don’t think I’ve ever taken you here.”

Intrigued, Pepper looked over what he was showing her and she smiled. “That’s the infamous Stark Estate?”

“Sure is,” Tony shrugged. “It was mostly a place where Mom and Dad stayed before doing business, but yeah. I spent a few years here in my youth. It might be a little outdated, but we can hire someone to fix that quick and have our wedding here.”

It was a beautiful gesture. In fact, Pepper loved the idea. The history of the home was amazing and Tony was the one offering to have the wedding there. It was the perfect medium.

“I say late summer or early autumn wedding,” Pepper said, flipping through some of the pictures that were stored on the servers. “Hopefully we could time it right with the changing of the leaves and it would be the most beautiful thing.”

Tony smiled as he listened to Pepper brainstorm the idea for the wedding. He loved when she took charge and started arranging things because it was in her nature. Seeing her light up at the option of using the estate on Long Island, he knew that it would be the perfect place for their wedding. Did he have the greatest memories from there? Not quite, but seeing the smile and excitement on Pepper’s face would make it all worth it in the end.

Leaning in, he pressed a quick kiss to Pepper’s cheek. “Just give me the official go ahead and I’ll hire a crew to start cleaning up the place now. Make it suitable for the 21st Century,” he teased.

“Let’s do it,” Pepper smiled. “Let’s get married here.”

* * *

 

And that’s exactly what happened. Tony hired a crew to fix up the old estate and even though he would’ve liked to completely modernize it, he knew the house had history and he’d be a little disappointed if he completely changed it… so when Pepper suggested to clean it up and just change a few things, he agreed.

As the wedding day grew closer and closer, it got a little chaotic. Pepper was trying her hardest not to stress out and go all ‘bride-zilla’ on the event planners who were setting everything up. And she surprised herself by keeping (mostly) calm when the seamstress accidentally tore a slight hole in her dress on the last fitting. But it was simple fix and she tipped them generously for being so wonderful throughout the whole experience.

Tony thanked Happy for all the hard work he had put in by keeping the press away for most of this, but told him to relax a little the day of the wedding. He was their guest and they hired security, so by the day of the ceremony, the whole estate was safe and Tony managed to secure a ‘no-fly zone’ over the area so there would be no issues with news helicopters and other paparazzi. He wanted this day to be absolutely perfect for Pepper.

As the guests arrived for the wedding of the century, Tony greeted them all and thanked them for being there, while Pepper was getting the finishing touches together before she’d walk down the aisle. By the time the ceremony actually began and Tony saw his future wife standing at the end of the aisle, he was betrayed by his emotions as he already felt his eyes begin to water. No doubt someone here was going to make some money, betting on who was going to start crying first.

Just watching Pepper walk down the aisle was beautiful. It reminded him of seeing her waiting for him as he walked off the plane after Afghanistan; or of the time she turned him down right before the press conference and and he knew right then and there that he was going to marry this amazing woman.

When she made it to the altar, Pepper handed her bouquet to Natasha and turned back to look at Tony. “Hey,” she whispered, smiling when she saw the silly grin on his face.

“Hey,” Tony whispered back. Pepper looked so goddamn beautiful in her dress that it was totally worth the wait. He blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. “You look so beautiful.”

“You can’t cry yet,” she chuckled. “We haven’t even started yet.”

By the time they exchanged vows, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Even though Tony had mostly held it together throughout his, Pepper sobbed during hers, but as she slipped the ring onto Tony’s finger, she looked at him with her big, blue eyes and smiled as she repeated those two amazing little words: “I do.”

Leaning in for their first kiss as husband and wife, Tony never thought he would’ve made it long enough to see this day. But he was so glad he did, because now he never wanted to let her go. “Love you, Mrs. Stark,” he said, stealing another kiss.

Holding hands as they walked down the aisle together, Pepper and Tony laughed along as their friends and family cheered to the happy couple. It was going to be a long night, but it was going to be an amazing one. Everything was exactly as they had hoped it’d be: perfect.

_Fin._


End file.
